Library Catalog as Versatile Discovery Platform

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Library Catalog as Versatile Discovery Platform
Tito Sierra, Emily Lynema, and Markus WustNorth
Carolina State University LibrariesDLF Fall
Forum 2007November 6, 2007
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Outline

• Next Generation Catalogs
• Catalog as Discovery Platform
• CatalogWS API
• Current CatalogWS Applications
• Closing Thoughts

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Next Generation Catalogs
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Background
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Examples - Endeca
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Examples - AquaBrowser
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Examples - Encore
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Examples - Primo
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Examples - WorldCat Local
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Examples - Solr-powered
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Examples - Solr-powered
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Next Generation Catalogs

• Modern search options
• Relevance ranking
• Faceted search
• Tag/word clouds
• New content and functionality
• User contributed content, social features
• Enriched content (book covers, reviews)
• Current awareness (RSS feeds)

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Next Generation Catalogs

• Current next generation catalog systems are
  largely focused on optimizing a single discovery
  context the OPAC

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Question

• Why should the discovery of cataloged library
  collections be limited to user interaction with a
  single catalog application?

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Catalog as Discovery Platform
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Platform?

• a platform is a system that can be
  reprogrammed and therefore customized by outside
  developers -- users -- and in that way, adapted
  to countless needs and niches that the platform's
  original developers could not have possibly
  contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.
• In contrast, an application is a system that
  cannot be reprogrammed by outside developers. It
  is a closed environment that does whatever its
  original developers intended it to do, and
  nothing more.
• Marc Andreessen, Analyzing the Facebook
  Platform, three weeks in (http//blog.pmarca.com/
  2007/06/analyzing_the_f.html)

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Discovery Happens Elsewhere

• No single website is the sole focus of a user's
  attention. Increasingly people discover websites,
  or encounter content from them, in a variety of
  places. These may be network level services
  (Google, ...), or personal services (my RSS
  aggregator or 'webtop'), or services which allow
  me to traverse from personal to network
  (Delicious, LibraryThing, ...).
• Lorcan Dempsey, Discovery happens elsewhere
  (http//orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001430.html)

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Platform Motivation

• Move beyond the one-size-fits-all approach to
  catalog discovery
• Make it easier to reuse and repurpose catalog
  data outside the ILS/OPAC
• Build catalog interfaces optimized for different
  use contexts

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CatalogWS API
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CatalogWS Goals

• Initial impetus
• Can we have RSS feeds for the catalog?
• Can we integrate catalog results into library
  website Quick Search?
• Final result
• Rich API for searching NCSU Libraries Catalog

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NCSU Catalog Architecture
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Search Indices as Data Source

• Benefits
• Performance
• Search features
• Consolidated and normalized data

• Limitations
• Subset of catalog data
• Read-only
• Not real time

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Technical Design

• RESTful architecture
• Define query using HTTP GET requests with URL
  parameters
• Separate web application handles API requests
• Java, Tomcat, XOM, Saxon 8.8, org.json

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API Functionality

• Technical documentation
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/ws/
• Discovery-oriented
• Catalog availability
• serviceavailability
• Focus on known-item lookup (isbn)
• Catalog search
• servicesearch
• Support known-item and exploratory searching
• Mimic functionality available on catalog search
  results page

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Example Request

• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalogws/?
• servicesearchquerydeforestation

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Required Parameters

• service
• availability search
• query
• Any term(s)

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Optional Parameters

• output
• xml rss opensearch json
• count
• default 30, max 300
• offset
• default 0
• sort
• relevance date_desc date_asc call_number
  most_popular date_added
• style
• URL of XSL to transform to custom output

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XML Response

• Defined with Relax NG Schema
• Discovery-centric
• Search metadata
• Results
• Basic bibliographic metadata (not MARC)
• Holdings / Item metadata
• Facet metadata
• Links

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Current CatalogWS Applications
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Current CatalogWS Applications

• Three categories
• Integration with external applications
• Alternative catalog interfaces
• Collection promotion

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Integration with External Applications

• Integrate catalog data in external library
  applications Quick Search
• Integrate catalog data in external non-library
  applications iGoogle Widget

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Quick Search

• Website Search Tool
• Combines
• Catalog search
• Journal finder
• Databases
• Website search
• Library FAQs

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Quick Search

• Top matching titles
• Format facet results
• Links to full catalog search results

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Google Widget
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Google Widget

• Search and display catalog results within iGoogle

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Alternative Catalog Applications

• MobiLIB Catalog basic catalog interface for
  mobile devices
• FacetBrowser experimental facet-based browsing
  interface

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MobiLIB Overview

• Current services
• Catalog search
• Computer availability
• Library opening hours
• Campus directory
• Contact information for selected library
  departments and services
• Links to external sites
• Location of buses in campus transit system

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MobiLIB Catalog

• Usage scenario Known-item search on mobile
  device (smart phone, PDA, )
• Bare-bones search interface
• Only one facet Availability

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MobiLIB Catalog

• Search fields
• Keyword
• Title
• Author
• ISBN

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MobiLIB Catalog

• Results display
• Short title
• Library
• Availability
• Call number if only one copy

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MobiLIB Catalog

• Item display
• Full title
• Format
• Author
• Date
• Library
• Availability
• Call number
• Location

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FacetBrowser

• Exploratory search
• Focus on browsing with facets
• Same facets as OPAC
• Basic keyword search

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Collection Promotion

• FacetBrowser as a collection promotion authoring
  tool
• Automatically generated bookwalls
• RSS feeds for new titles

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FacetBrowser

• Includes shopping cart for saving selected items
• Currently offers four different output styles

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FacetBrowser

• Displays output
• Generates HTML code for bookwall displays and
  blogs

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New Books Bookwall

• Newest books in catalog
• Automatically generated
• Maintenance free

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RSS Feeds

• Users can subscribe to RSS feeds based on their
  individual search preferences
• Active promotion
• Information about newest items is pushed to users

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RSS Feeds
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Closing Thoughts
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Benefits

• Reduced development costs
• The CatalogWS API has lowered the technical
  barriers for staff to develop new web
  applications that use catalog data.

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Benefits

• Versatile access to catalog data
• The resource-oriented nature of the CatalogWS API
  makes it easy to integrate catalog data in
  external applications.

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Platforms, Again

• a platform is a system that can be
  reprogrammed and therefore customized by outside
  developers -- users -- and in that way, adapted
  to countless needs and niches that the platform's
  original developers could not have possibly
  contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.
• Marc Andreessen, Analyzing the Facebook
  Platform, three weeks in (http//blog.pmarca.com/
  2007/06/analyzing_the_f.html)

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Thanks!

• Tito Sierra
• tito_sierra_at_ncsu.edu
• Emily Lynema
• emily_lynema_at_ncsu.edu
• Markus Wust
• markus_wust_at_ncsu.edu

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More Information

• CatalogWS API
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/ws/
• CatalogWS Applications
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/catalogwsapps
  /